Disco Fruit is a Serbian label founded in 2014 by Milos Djordjevic aka Tonbe. The label hand-picks the juiciest disco, house and funk cuts to satisfy any groover’s appetite. Disco Fruit is home to a sweet selection of artists including: Loshmi, Mitiko, Hotmood, Dr Packer, 84Bit, Evil Smarty, C. Da Afro, Tonbe and more. Disco Fruit’s sister label is house label, Hellcat Tunes. Tasty.
Review: There was a time when Tonbe was sticking out a fresh EP almost every week. While the Serb is still prolific, he's calmed down a bit in recent times, wisely prioritising quality over quantity. Rules, the nu-disco scene stalwart's latest release, is highly enjoyable and naturally packed with peak-time ready treats. Check first opener 'Rules of the Dance', a chunky, filter-sporting slab of disco-funk/French touch fusion that's as weighty and excitable as they come, before getting your ears around the loved-up deliciousness of glassy-eyed '80s soul re-edit 'Better Than This' (and its accompanying instrumental mix). Elsewhere, 'Dusty Floor' sees him add echo-laden guitar links and jammed out electric piano motifs to a bubbly, post-electro beat, while 'Perfect Plan' is a sun-splashed slab of Balearic boogie with added deep house weight.
Review: Serbian nu disco don Tonbe reassumes his Loshmi re-edit disguise for this six-tracker on his own Disco Fruit. A cheeky refix of Barbara Streisand's early 80s soul classic 'Woman In Love' serves as the lead track and and is presented in vocal and dub flavas, followed closely by an endlessly looping instrumental take on 'Return Of The Mack' that'll have you running off to find an acapella pronto! Elsewhere, 'Going Home' and 'Drive Around' draw on unidentified sources from somewhere around the Kraftwerk/Yello region, while the squelchy 'Rock Baby' has an early 80s Euro/electro feel. But 'In Love' is the killer.
Review: This latest album-length excursion by Montenegran nu disco regular Sasha Mitich finds him largely exploring and expressing his love for all things 80s - perhaps never more so than on 'Someone Like You', which could have come straight from the soundtrack of some coming-of-age movie starring at least one of the Brat Pack. Elsewhere, 'Back To Funk' brings the 80s boogie vibes, 'Woman Saying' recalls the likes of Fern Kinney or The Captain & Tenille and 'Your Life' slips in some cheeky Bee Gees bites, but the standout by far is the ultra-funky 'Fancy Dancer', a rework of the Commodores cut of the same name from 1976.
Review: Tonbe's music has spanned a range of styles from Balearica to boogie, but when he calls his latest long-playing offering 'Postive Funk' you kinda know what to expect, don't you? Thankfully the titular promise is one on which he more than delivers, with the album striking a nice balance between raw, 70s-sounding funkers like 'Funkstar' and 'Dig It', and more 80s- or pop-flavoured nuggets such as 'Ain't Nothing Wrong' or 'Live My Life'. Highlights for yours truly include '15th Street' (home to some extremely cool Hammond licks) as well as 'Another Bite', which takes some downright liberties with a Queen classic.
Review: A new five-tracker from Montenegran nu-disco stalwart Mitiko is always something to take note of, and this latest Disco Fruit offering doesn't disappoint. The EP starts out in chunked-up boogie territory with 'Triton Funk', which sports some killer 80s sax work, and ends with the blissed-out Balearic pop of 'Again'. In-between you'll find the sunny, horn-soaked Latin vibes of 'El Sonido De Catarro' and a serviceable cover of Bugz classic 'Simmer Down'... oh, and what for this writer is by far the standout, 'Jazz Da Primavera', which fuses jazz and garage tropes in a fashion that's reminiscent of vintage Eight Ball material, or possibly early Nice N' Ripe.
Review: The ever-prolific Tonbe steps up with his latest EP, which features four tracks in a total of six mixes. "My Family" kicks us off in pulsing, surging disco-house/nu-disco territory, and is followed by "To The Limit", which finds the Serbian stalwart veering towards 00s soulful house territory. There are more straight-up house vibes on closer "Thank You", a spritely piano romp graced by the unmistakeable tonsils of certain Mr Owens, but only after we've had "Funk Me", an irresistible combination of a big, dirty funker of a bassline and a markedly Crystal Waters-ish vocal loop. It's rare for a Tonbe set not to come packing at least one stone cold killer, and this time out, "Funk Me" fits the bill admirably.
Review: I've no idea whether Mitiko actually intended the title of this seven-track offering to double as a 'serving suggestion' but it certainly works as one, as the Montenegran disco stalwart gives the dancefloor stompers a swerve and turns his energies to ploughing a much more laidback furrow. The shimmering piano chords and lazy, low-slung b-line that kick off 'Only Yours' set the tone for an album that seldom gets above walking pace but still manages to cram in nods to a wide range of influences - see, for instance, 'Phase One''s genius marriage of a Phuture vocal snip to some superbly smooooooooooth jazz-funk geetar licks, and was that a cheeky James Ingram bassline too? File under mellow horizontal loveliness.
Review: Serbian disco stalwart Milo? Đorđević AKA Tonbe AKA Loshmi brings us what is simultaneously one of his housiest EPs to date and one of his most varied. 'Shy Town' opens with crisp 4/4s before settling down into a smoother funk/soul ride. 'If You Want Me', with its archetypal Tonbe combo of a fragile female vocal and some absolute killer stabs, is arguably the lead track as it comes in Vocal and Dub flavas, while completing the EP are the Om/Naked-esque soulful house groover that is 'Over You' and 'Angel', a floaty, drifty affair with a wistful female vocal. Good stuff as ever from a producer that doesn't get half the attention he deserves.
Review: Here comes Montenegro's ever-reliable Sasha Mitich with a three-tracker for Serbian label Disco Fruit. 'Look For The Magic' places an infuriatingly familiar-sounding "life can be so stressful" diva vocal atop lashings of fat, squelchy bass, while 'Simmer Down' reworks Reel People's (now 20-year-old!) broken beat/soulful house classic of the same name. 'You Are The One', meanwhile, rocks another diva vocal snip ("sometimes I say I'm through with you", not the Jocelyn one you're thinking of) which it pairs with crisp, lively percussion and an intricate but still impressively hefty b-line. All told, three cheeky sample-based groovers that'll keep 'em shimmying along nicely.
Review: Four tracks in a total of six mixes make up this latest EP from ever-prolific Serbian discomeister Tonbe. 'Never Let Me Go' is up first, blending late 70s/early 80s jazz-funk and contemporary pop influences and coming in vocal and dub flavas. There's a distinct pop feel, too, to the 80s-influenced 'New Vision' and 'Robbery In Progress' - both all bright analogue synths and lashings of cowbell - which just leaves us with the two rubs of 'So Real', which continues in the same 80s pop-leaning groove established by the two previous cuts and is available, again, with or without the female vocal.
Review: Serbia's Disco Fruit bring us an EP packing one track apiece from some of the biggest names on the contemporary disco scene. 'My Dream Come True' from Mexican fave Hotmood is a hazy, looping affair with a soulful male vocal, while Montenegro's Mitiko reworks Fatback classic 'Do The Bus Stop' as 'Are You Ready'. We stay in re-edit mode as label boss Tonbe, in his Loshmi guise, revists Jimmy Bo Horne's 'Is It In?' on 'Yes It Is', before finally Brian SNR closes out the EP with 'Wanna Kiss You', which sports an almost punk-funk/new wave-style vocal and some glorlously cheesy 80s sax work.
Review: Last month saw two East European disco favourites, Serbia's Tonbe AKA Loshmi and Montenegro's Mitiko, joining forces for a split EP on the former's Disco Fruit label. Now the same imprint brings us this joint collection that gathers together the best of the two producers' 2021 output, in all three of their guises. The tracks involved are a mixture of re-edits, covers and original material; more importantly, both producers are ludicrously prolific, which means they had a huge catalogue to draw from. And that in turn means there's nary a track that puts a foot wrong here - making this an essential purchase for anyone who hasn't picked these cuts up on various EPs along the way.
Review: Ludicrously prolific Montenegran producer Sascha Mitich needs no introduction to disco buyers, and now here comes his latest offering, which packs seven 70s-tastic re-edits. Among those sources we can identify this time around are Donna Summer's 'Rumour Has It', The Gibson Brothers' 'What A Life' and 'You' (presented here as 'All I Care About Is You' ) and an unidentified, male-sung take on 'I Can See Clearly Now', while of the tracks whose origin remains unknown, the standout for this reviewer is 'But It's Funky Music', whose gloriously cheesy squealin' Moogs give it something of a US sitcom theme vibe.
Review: What we have here is arguably the first ever two-man disco threeway, as Serbian disco don Tonbe (Milo? Đorđević) teams up with his Montenegran oppo Mitiko (Sasha Mitich) and himself in his Loshmi guise. As for the album that's emerged from their joint efforts, well, the clue's in the title, as the two nu-disco stalwarts dive into a big cupboard full of flamenco guitars, marimbas and mariachi trumpets, and come out clutching 10 Latin-infused dancefloor shakers built for effortless grooving in the summer sunshine. Highlights, you ask? Check the low-slung funk of 'Con Sabrosura' or the jazzy shuffle of 'Portoriko'.
Review: Tonbe's super-prolific output never ceases to amaze - he seems to churn out album-length releases on an almost monthly basis, and this writer is yet to encounter one that didn't include at least one or two stone-cold killers. In this case, I'd refer you to the sultry, grown-up, Stonebridge-esque house-pop of 'All I Need', and specifically the drop that occurs around the 3:20 mark - pure class. Also worthy of note are 'Trabajar' with its attention-getting bass-y intro, complex percussion and Afro vox, and closer 'For This Joy' with its rave-tastic bassline and cheeky Fedde Le Grand-nodding "put your hands up for this joy" vocal. And if you like those, there are seven more where they came from - and doubtless 10 more in just another few weeks!
Review: Three varied cuts make up this latest EP from Montenegran nu-disco stalwart Mitiko, coming on Tonbe's Disco Fruit. The EP opens with 'Turbo Flop', a moody, atmospheric affair with an undulating main synth riff that's similar in cadence to a Native American chant, and that's augmented from around the 1:30 mark by plangent electric guitar. 'Kaskazi Muziki' is a more uptempo cut with a plinky-plonk synth hook, fat funk bass and a male vocal in an unidentified language, and will work on house and disco floors alike, while the slow-grindin', Hammond-flecked 'Running Into You' drops the tempo once more and takes us a little closer to traditional funk/soul pastures.
Review: The Serbian disco magician known as Tonbe once more dons his Loshmi guise to get busy on the re-edits tip, bringing us his reinventions of four classic cuts of yore. 'Automatik' doesn't actually differ too much from The Pointer Sisters' original, except for getting a bit wonkier and druggier in the breakdown; somewhat more radical in approach are his reworkings of David Bowie's 'Let's Dance' and Ray Parker Jr's 'Ghostbusters', but for sheer brass neck the prize goes to 'Dark Night', which somehow manages to drag Deep Purple's 'Black Night' kicking and screaming onto the disco dancefloor.
Review: By our reckoning Serbia's Milos Djordjevic, better known as Tonbe, has AT LEAST a dozen album-length releases to his name, but he shows no signs of slowing down just yet! Here comes another one, wherein fairly 'authentic-sounding' disco and boogie grooves like 'Closer' and 'Golden Days' are interspersed with more lounge-y and Latin-flavoured cuts such as 'Varadero' and 'Ven Pa Ca'. Elsewhere, Tonbe flirts with the sound of West African reggae on 'Senegalese' while 'El Mariachi' brings the Western movie theme vibes, before the album comes to a close with a slab of heavy, geetar-squawlin' Blaxploitation funk in the form of 'Beat Me Like A Funk'.
Review: He's by far better known for his disco output but as this full-length offering shows, the Serbian don known variously as Tonbe and Loshmi is no slouch in the house department either! Recent single 'Rotate', featuring the golden tonsils of Robert Owens, sets out the album's stall nicely, with the remaining nine tracks ranging from the lounge-y 'Journey To Downtown' with its vibes and sax, via the reggae-tinged 'Dub Thing', to the organ-led NJ garage vibes of 'Right Here Right Now', the uplifting piano stomp of 'Take Me Higher' and the positively sublime closer 'Beside Me'. A triumph.
Review: Over the past five years Mexico's Guillermo Gonzalez Santana, better known as Hotmood, had dropped a good 30 or so singles/EPs on a number of imprints including Tonbe's Disco Fruit, who now round up his previous output for the label in album form. Regular disco buyers may have most of what's here in their collections already, then, but if you've yet to get acquainted this is the perfect opportunity to do so, with standouts including the irresistible lil' jazzy, funky hip-wriggler that is 'Mr Funkyman', the laidback, handclap-tastic disco groove of 'My Disco Collection' and the looping cut-up soul of 'Clean Cuts'.
Review: The artist often known as Tonbe returns to regular home Disco Fruit with five more Serious Edits for those who like their disco colourful, synth-heavy and with a subtle house twist. After opening with the P-funk-influenced, cowbell-sporting swirl of 'Bomb on Me', the Serbian producer delivers two versions (vocal and dub) of 'Physic', a cheery, squelchy tweak of the Olivia Newton-John track of the same name with added house pianos. Elsewhere, 'Fantasy' is a low-slung revision of what sounds like a classic Talking Heads cut, while 'Waiting' is a slo-mo Balearic treat full of glistening guitars, tactile AOR grooves and sunset-ready synthesizer chords.
Review: The titles here might suggest a re-edits EP but rest assured the five tracks ARE actually original, albeit sample-based, productions. 'Step Off The Train', for instance, does indeed bite EBTG's 'Missing' as you'd expect, but simply takes a two-line vocal snip and loops it up over a slo-mo grinder that sits right on the deep house/nu-disco cusp, while 'Oops Upside' is another house/disco fusion that draws not on The Gap Band but on a female-sung cover thereof. So let's not worry about sources and inspirations and just say these are five classy midtempo groovers that'll suit more discerning nu-disco floors down to the ground.
Review: There are producers out there who'll spend months agonising over a snare sound or a clap, and who'll turn out maybe two or three tracks a year. At the other end of the spectrum are artists like Tonbe, who are seemingly capable of knocking together an album's worth of material by lunchtime, and frequently do! Both approaches can, of course, turn up gold - in this case, see the wonky Hammond shuffle that is 'Funker', or the summery good-time funk of 'Pontiac GTO'. This latest offering also finds Tonbe exploring poppier territory on cuts like 'Sugar' and 'Don't Let Me Go'.
Review: Here's one of those releases that really doesn't need a lot of explaining - anyone with even a passing interest in nu-disco should be more than familiar with all four artists involved, as well as the label! Hotmood brings the 70s vibes on the string-drenched, guitar-flecked 'You Are A Star', C Da Afro fast-forwards to the 80s boogie era with the shiny-suited 'So Good For Me', while Loshmi arguably gets the most inventive, mixing up Afro, Latin and spy movie soundtrack vibes on 'Regah'. It's the lazy, laidback funk/jazz-funk of Mitiko's 'Back To Dance', though, that takes the gold.
Review: This is at least the tenth album-length release that Montenegro's Sascha Mitich has produced for Serbian label Disco Fruit, a work rate rivalled only by label boss Tonbe (AKA Loshmi). As ever, the seven tracks featured here blur the lines between re-edits and sample-based productions, with the energetic, good time Afro-tropical vibes of 'Desperately' (think Barrabas, Osibisa) the standout for this reviewer, and the Hammond-sporting (and fairly self-explanatory) 'Foot Stompin' Music' a close second. A lounge-y cover of Stevie Wonder classic 'Ma Cherie Amour' may prove a little more Marmite ("you either love it or hate it"), but isn't without its charms.
Review: The trouble with Tonbe is you've no sooner finished reviewing one long-player than the next one arrives! With such a prolific output, it's all the more wonder that the Serbian nu-disco stalwart manages to maintain the quality standard - but make no mistake, quality is what you get here. One or two tracks (eg opener 'Live My Life') veer a little too far down the pop route, but just check out the strutty 'This Is Party', euphoric Hammond workout 'Change The Mood' or the jazz-tastic closing triptych that begins with 'Keep On Moving, Keep On Grooving' and you'll surely agree that Tonbe is a rare talent indeed.
Review: Turns out Milos Djordjevic, AKA Serbian re-edit king Loshmi, has something of an Eddy Grant fixation. He must have, because two of the Guyanese-British reggae star's tracks get a Loshmi makeover here - namely 'Rampage' and 'Boys In The Street'. Elsewhere, 'No Way' is another reggae edit, 'Across The Floor' and 'In The Club' draw on unidentified boogie sources, Jimmy Bo Horne's 'Is It In' from 1980 gets reworked as 'Yes It Is', Salsoul Orchestra get the treatment on 'Right Size' and - perhaps tread carefully with this one! - 'Neon Rider' revisits the theme to a certain 80s TV series starring The Hoff...
Review: Prolific Montenegrin producer Mitiko (real name Sasha Mitich) will need no introduction to nu-disco lovers by now, and here he brings us seven more very playable nuggets on a release you can call an EP or LP as you see fit! 'Are You Ready' revisits Fatback Band's classic 'Do The Bus Stop' - serviceably if perhaps a little unnecessarily - while Marley/Clapton classic 'I Shot The Sheriff' gets covered (not re-edited) inna disco style; the other five cuts are similarly 70s-themed, with the slow-moving, sleazy funk of 'On Ya' leading the charge for this reviewer on the strength of that squelch bassline alone.
Review: Serbia's Milos Dordevic, AKA Tonbe/Loshmi, proves his mastery of the nu-disco game in just two tracks here! Submission 1: opener 'Easy Dancin', which has a wistful female vocal, spacey Dave Lee-esque Rhodes doodles and, most importantly, what is possibly the greatest stab ever recorded (check it at 0:32). Submission 2: 'Ram Tam Tam', which (after another excellent stab) centres around a rising Hammond riff that never quite resolves - ideal for building energy levels to fever pitch just before you drop that "right, everyone up!" anthem. Four more solid nu-disco/boogie cuts are just the icing on what's already a pretty unmissable cake.
Review: The 70s force is strong in this one... listen to this latest full-length collection from Montenegran producer Sasha Mitich, AKA Mitiko, and you may have to remind yourself, as this writer did, that you're actually listening to a brand new album and not a set of re-edits! There are no spangly Nang-esque synths here, no wonked-out Italo-cosmic excursions, just seven slabs of fat-assed funk ('Real Nasty'), lavish disco-soul ('Thank You For Tonight') and, perhaps most interestingly, a couple of tracks ('Lay Down On Me', 'Universal Love') that lean towards a mellower, more 'crossover' style ? la Bill Withers or The Bellamy Brothers.
Review: There's a lot to admire about Tonbe's boundary-blurring, edit-not-edit releases on Disco Fruit, particularly the attractiveness of the material on offer and their good-value nature. His latest release, Always Like This, naturally ticks both of these boxes, cannily combinig elements of good-time house, electrofunk, jazz-funk and nu-disco. There's no weak links, just 10 party-hearty treats to savour. Our picks of a very strong bunch include the bouncy disco-house cheeriness of 'Days Like These', the bustling jazz-house beats and tidy organ stabs of 'Raw & Dirty', the Clavinet-sporting, cowbell-laden stomp of 'Shake That Booty' and the classic, late '80s NYC garage-house goodness of 'Without You'. Instant fun-times.
Review: Prolific Montenegran producer Sasha Mitich, better known to disco lovers as Mitiko, returns to his regular home of Disco Fruit with, incredibly, his third full-length release of the year, following June's 'Disko Diss' and September's 'Best Of'. Things get off to a flying start with the stunning 'Akugen', as deep house, disco and Balearica collide in the heart of the rain forest. Elsewhere, cuts like 'It's A Long Ride' and 'Living After Time' have a more soulful feel, 'Now I Can See' is a dubby late-night groove, and 'Tour De Happiness' and 'Looking Back' house things up a little, making for a varied and enjoyably listen all round - though 'Akugen' remains the stone-cold killer.
Review: Serbia's Disco Fruit label offer digital buyers another high-VFM collection of tracks that were previously only available on wax, with the album's 31 cuts coming from just six artists including scene faves Tonbe and Loshmi and label regular Evil Smarty. Between them, they run the gamut from scorching, bottom-heavy funk (Evil Smarty's 'The Get Down', Dave Allison's 'Ain't Nuthin To It', Loshmi's 'Drugstore') to deep n' soulful house (Tonbe's 'Broken Heart'), via Gradient Logic's glacial boogie nouveau and jazzier cuts like Dave Allison's 'Trade Off' and Tonbe's 'Something Jazzy'. It's more one for the jazzbos and funkateers than outright disco dollies, admittedly, but on the whole that's probably a good thing...
Review: Serbia's Disco Fruit bring us a digital collection of tracks that were (mostly) previously only available on wax. Label boss Tonbe supplies four of 'em, and with most of the rest coming from equally familiar names such as Dr Packer, Hotmood, Mitiko and Loshmi, you know the bar's set high! Stylistically, the album ranges from authentic-sounding low-slung funkers like Hotmood's 'Let's Ride' and Tonbe's 'Gem Picker' to the breezy uptempo soul of 84Bit's 'Mamma Jamm' and the boogie nouveau of Dr Packer & Loshmi's 'In Case Of Emergency', while special shout-outs go to Evil Smarty, who almost out-Fatbacks Fatback, and to Mitiko's excellent reworking of the mighty Janet.
Review: Montenegrin producer/re-editor Sasha Mitich, better known as Mitiko, has been extremely prolific since emerging onto the scene around five years ago, reliably turning out a new album-length EP every few months - which has left him with a rich back catalogue to plunder for this 'best of' compilation. Most of the tracks here would appear to be re-edits rather than original productions, but if so then he's dug admirably deep - there are reworks of cuts by Sister Sledge, Janet Jackson and Kool & The Gang ('Celebremos' was the band's own Spanish-language version of 'Celebration'), but most of the other source material escapes us. Which, of course, just makes this set sound all the fresher!
Review: Here we have four more sure-fire bullets for your disco machine gun, coming courtesy of Serbia's Disco Fruit label. Mexico's Hotmood is up first with the fairly self-explanatory 'I Love To Boogie', which is followed by 'The Groove To Make You Dance', a reworking of T-Connection's 1977 TK Disco classic 'Groove To Get Down' by Guildford's own re-edit don Evil Smarty. Montenegran producer Sasha Mitich, AKA Mitiko, then takes liberties with Janet Jackson (and gets away with it) on 'What Have You Done For Me', before label co-owner Loshmi plays us out with laidback, headnodding instrumental 'Soul Food'
Review: The words 'funk' and 'funky' are two of most over-used and wantonly misapplied in the entire musical lexicon, but rest assured they're employed entirely appropriately here! 'Funk Off' is an authentically fat n' squelchy, late 70s/early 80s-sounding affair, but with a modern twist - to contemporary ears, that bassline will recall both Daft Punk's 'Da Funk' and Basement Jaxx's 'Remedy'. 'Motherfunker' operates in similar territory, but with something of a Compass Point-like swing to the bass and topline hints of 'Ashes To Ashes'-era Bowie, while Tonbe provides a rerub of the latter that packs a heftier kick, presumably to enable smoother transition onto house floors.
Review: Since a young age, Montenegro-based Mitiko has shown a great passion for music. 10 years ago his productions began to surface, many tracks in the vein of nu-disco and deep house found on such labels as Fruity Flavor and Cherry Cola Records - and of course his very own Disco Fruit. Following up his previous long player from last month entitled 'Summer' he's already back into the groove with 'My Sugar', featuring a fine collection of sweltering edits. From the roaring vocals on the uplifting "Can't Wait No Longer", the neon-lit '80s pop vibe of "Hold Me", the slo-mo boogie down feels of the title track and last but not least - an oldie but a goodie to be heard on "Straight To Your Arms".
Review: Fresh from impressing via a first outing on Hot Digits, Tonbe returns to his own imprint, Disco Fruit, with an overflowing picnic basket of summery dancefloor treats. The emphasis throughout is on musical warmth, with elements borrowed from a variety of lesser-known jazz-funk, disco and electrofunk cuts combining well with the producer's own deep house sounds and largely club-focussed drums. The results are uniformly entertaining and enjoyable, with highlights including the boogie fizz of "Always There", the Bongo-riffic West Coast deep house bounce of "Freaky Situation", the carnival-ready roll of "Latina" and the Chimes style breakbeat soul heat of "Stick Together".
Review: Montenegran producer Sasha Mitich returns to Serbia's Disco Fruit with his second album proper, which follows 2018's 'Disko Adriatiko'. We're in nu-disco/disco-house territory as opposed to straight-up 70s pastiche - in fact it's 80s boogie/electrofunk, rather than 70s disco per se, that's the most obvious influence, particularly on cuts like 'Pray For Another Day'. But the album's perhaps at its most interesting when it crosses over into other musical pastures: there's some fine jazz-funk playing to be heard on Ronnie Laws/Incognito cover 'Always There', for instance, while the standout for this reviewer is jazz-fuelled deep houser 'Sound Of The Rain' - think St Germain jamming with the Average White Band!
Review: It would be fair to say that Tonbe is pretty prolific. Since his last outing on Disco Fruit - the label he founded and runs, remember - in March (2020), the Serbian producer has made numerous outings on Little Jack, Zero Eleven and Puro Music. Given this release schedule you'd expect "For My People", his latest mini-album on Disco Fruit, to be a bit flabby, but it's genuinely another hit-filled treat. Our picks of a very strong bunch of disco, boogie and house-flavoured reworks include the "2020 Mix" of "For My People", a sax and jazzy bass guitar-dominated dancefloor treat, the hazy Balearic disco warmth of "Easy Summer Wind", the pulsating P-funk bounce of "Thankful" and the chunky, percussion-rich peak-time goodness of "Dobar Groove".
Review: Something of a departure for Mitiko here: a regular on Disco Fruit, the Montenegran producer is best known for disco and boogie vibes that pay very faithful homage to the sounds of the 70s and 80s, but on this five-tracker he takes a left turn into Latin music territory. Disco jocks who favour rhythmic workouts over serotonin-rush diva vocals will find this an EP that's worth exploring, and while its appeal to the disco beards in cities such as Manchester or Berlin may be somewhat limited, that's certainly not gonna be the case in party destinations like Miami, Ibiza or Mexico.
Review: For his last outing on Disco Fruit, Montenegro-based Mitiko served up some "Naughty Things". On his return to the label, he's decided to share his "Beach View". It's a fine vista which naturally comes accompanied by the kind of warm, sun-kissed re-edits that will sound suitably saucy blasting out of the windows of locked-down houses this summer. Highlights are plentiful, from the low-slung, delay-laden Stevie Wonder revision that kicks things off ("Come Back Once More"), to drowsy, synth-laden jazz-funk-meets-electrofunk goodness of "To The Boogie Found", via the grandiose disco stomp of "How Sweet It Used To Be" and the pitched-down, R&B-goes-house warmth of closing cut "How I Feel".
Review: Fresh from the market, Disco Fruit offers up a suitably large pallet of juicy re-edits, tasty revisions and sun-ripened reworks. As you'd expect, there's plenty to get your teeth into from start to finish. Our highlights include the fuzzy 21st century disco-funk of Brian SNR's "Down For Some Loving", the bouncy, synth-bass-propelled funkiness of C Da Afro's "Music Is Love", the sleazy sweatiness of Frank Virgilio's flash-fried "Thick As A Brick (The ReThink)", the throbbing goodness of Loshmi's Italo-disco/80s rock revision "Palm Springs", the mid-tempo disco bliss of Mitiko's "It's Over, It's Over" and the disco-house bump of Tonbe's "Make It Last Forever".
Review: It's only been five months since Disco Fruit overlord Tonbe (real name Milos Djordjevic) offered up his fourth full-length excursion, but he's already offering up album number five. The Serbian producer begins with a squelchy synth-funk cover of Queen Classic "Another One Bites The Dust" (renamed "Another Bite") and ends with the cowbell-laden nu-boogie smoothness of "Sunny August"; in between, you'll find a fine selection of colourful, synth-heavy workouts that successfully blend bold melodies and ear-catching chords with beats that variously touch on house, disco, Italo, freestyle and electro. It's a coherent and entertaining set with plenty of dancefloor-ready club cuts for all those who dig melody-driven nu-disco.
Review: Montenegro's own disco don Mitiko clearly isn't a subscriber to the "less is more" theory: since 2016 he's put out no fewer than nine albums, all on Disco Fruit, and now here comes number 10. Don't expect any huge, groundbreaking innovation here: faithful homages, not sonic experiments, are Mitiko's stock-in-trade. But from the chuggy, laidback 'Nights Near The Fire' to the 80s boogie of 'Having Any Doubts' and 'Standing On The Line', and from the jazz-funk groove of 'On The Rock' to the unabashed cheesy/novelty vibe of 'Bad Man Of The West', it's all well executed and authentic-sounding, making this an enjoyable listen all the same.
Review: 2019 was a busy year for 84bit, a producer who released a mixture of deep house and nu-disco jams on a variety of largely digital-only labels. "Mamma Jamma" is his debut for Disco Fruit and features a number of notable cuts. Chief amongst these is the title track, a bustling, bass-heavy chunk of booming disco-house that's subsequently taken in a funkier direction by the ubiquitous Dr Packer, Hotmood and Tonbe, whose fine revision is looser, warmer and baggier. The EP also boasts two versions of "HN": an electric piano-laden original mix that expertly joins the dots between elecro, funk breaks and disco-funk, and a bubbly nu-disco revision by label regular Mitko.
Review: Astonishingly, Loshmi's long-running "Serious Edits" series is now 15 volumes deep. We can happily confirm that he's not run out of steam yet with the seven-track selection featuring some suitably playable, floor-friendly revisions that are well worth your hard-earned cash. Our highlights include the gently housed-up 80s disco goodness of "Delightful", the heavy disco-funk/proto-rap fusion of "Funky Animals" - all eccentric mic flow, mazy organ lines and beefed-up disco grooves - and the languid, glassy-eyed loveliness of head-nodding warm up gem "Soul Food". There's naturally plenty to set the pulse elsewhere across the EP, too, so give all of the clips a listen if you have time.
